


A Very Merry Pansmione

by dulcedinem



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: All your OTP's plus Theo in one place, Blairon, Christmas, Christmas Fanfic, Christmas Harry Potter, Christmas Pansmione, Christmas Party, Drarry, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Good Slytherins, Gryffindor/Slytherin Inter-House Relationships, M/M, Multi, OTP Feels, Pansmione - Freeform, Sexual Tension, Ugly Holiday Sweaters, friends - Freeform, good old-fashioned sweet Christmas fluff, pansmione fluff, short and sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2020-12-28 05:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21131564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dulcedinem/pseuds/dulcedinem
Summary: Harry and Draco host a Christmas gathering in their new flat and Hermione can't keep her eyes off one guest in particular.A fic where we collectively chant "kiss! kiss! kiss!" together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Is it too early for a Christmas fic? Hell nah.

Well, here she was. Hermione could see the gleam of lit candles filtering through the windows of Harry and Draco’s new flat. She pulled her thick winter coat closer and walked towards the door, a jumble of nerves and excitement twisting in her stomach. She hadn’t seen either of them, or any of her friends really, for over a year. Her job at the Ministry had sent her overseas to work closely with delegates to the International Confederation of Wizards, ensuring she was gone for long absences. She kept in touch, of course. Harry was diligent in writing her long letters updating her about everyone’s life back in Britain. Ginny and Luna wrote occasionally too, but Ron was absolute rubbish at keeping up. So she had known beforehand that Harry and Draco finally moved into their own place together, after two years of half-staying at each other’s flats. 

Hermione knocked firmly, hearing muffled bickering from the other side of the door.

“Hermione!” Harry swung the front door open and swept Hermione into a tight hug. She could see Draco standing over his shoulder, looking simultaneously annoyed but happy to see her. 

Draco nudged Harry aside and pulled Hermione into a formal but warm hug, clearing his throat.

“I’m glad you’re here, Harry and I were just having a mild disagreement about the amount of Ogden’s Old I picked up earlier.” 

Hermione grinned at the pair of them, glad to see nothing had changed in her absence. Harry was dressed in his festive red “H” sweater that Molly insisted on replacing every few years, and his hair fell into his eyes when he moved his head too quickly. She watched Draco’s hand dart out and smooth away a stray strand from Harry’s forehead. Unsurprisingly, Draco was wearing well-tailored trousers and a crisp white button-up, decidedly less jovial than Harry. His hair was neatly combed and arranged handsomely, the white-blonde strands carefully placed. 

“You both look good.” Hermione smiled, handing Harry the plate of treacle tart she had brought. 

“Am I the first one here?” She glanced around them the open living room, noting how perfectly they had blended each other’s styles. The furniture looked absolutely posh, Draco’s doing, she suspected, but it was filled with soft elements of whites and golds that filled it with an air of warmth. Their massive tree stood in the corner, twinkling with suspended lights and tiny snitches that hovered in place.

“No, Gin and Luna are already here, Ron and Blaise just arrived. Theo’s due any minute, and Pansy will probably be late.” Harry answered, grabbing Hermione’s coat and ushering her inside. 

Hermione followed Harry to the kitchen, where the group of guests were already assembled. Ginny squealed when Hermione entered, stuffing the remnants of her pumpkin pastie into her mouth and rushing over to her. Luna followed her closely, wrapping her arms around the already embracing pair.

“Missed you guys,” Hermione laughed, enjoying being gently crushed between the two of them. 

They stepped back and Ginny planted an easy kiss against Hermione’s head before swinging her arm around Luna’s waist and pulling her tightly towards her, kissing her swath of blonde curls. 

“Good to see you, Hermione,” Ginny beamed as Luna nodded her agreement.

“Yes,” Luna smiled, gazing from Ginny to Hermione, “You’ve got significantly less Blibbering Humdingers around you as well since last year. A good sign, don’t you think, Ginny?”

Ginny shrugged but murmured her agreement as Hermione chuckled.

“Good to know, Luna, thanks.” She turned to Ron, who was standing at Ginny’s shoulder, waiting to say hello. 

Ron beamed at her and crushed her in a quick hug, pressing her face against his chest. Hermione felt laughter bubble up from her again, feeling warm and loved and overwhelmed at seeing her friends after so long.

“Hullo, ‘Mione.” Ron gave her shoulders another quick squeeze. He too was in his “R” sweater pushed up to his elbows, the maroon red clashing with the flush on his neck from the Butterbeer. She was happy to see the scars along his arms had faded a bit more as well, now long silvery stripes crisscrossing his forearms. 

Ron stepped to the side and gestured to Blaise, who was standing behind him with one elegant eyebrow arched in amusement. 

Hermione smiled shyly at Blaise, accepting the hand he offered her and the polite hello he murmured. She had known of his and Ron’s budding relationship thanks to Harry’s updates, but had never seen them together. In fact, Hermione hadn’t really spent any time with her former Slytherin classmates, save for Draco, who had been a regular feature at their gatherings since he and Harry started dating. Harry had written that in the past year, he and Draco slowly began to merge their friend groups, or at least ease them into wary acquaintanceships. 

Hermione was happy to see Ron find someone as well. His dating life had consisted of the strange fling with Lavender in sixth year, to the brief moments she and Ron had shared while on the run, to an on-again-off-again relationship with Oliver Wood after the war. 

“Good to see you happy, Ron.” Hermione readily accepted the Butterbeer that Ginny thrust into her hands, tipping it towards Ron. Just then the group turned towards booming laughter that emerged from the front door, heralding Theo’s arrival. 

“I do hope he brought pudding,” Luna whispered, Ginny rolling her eyes good-naturedly in response. 

“Always with the pudding,” Ginny teased, holding Luna under her chin and catching her lips in a quick kiss. 

Theo, tailed by Draco and Harry, bustled into the kitchen. His lanky arms were laden with messily tied packages wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. 

“Hello! Hello! The moment you’ve all been waiting for!” he announced, carefully moving from friend to friend and dropping a package into their hands. Everyone let out a collective groan. 

“No gifts until after dinner!” Draco protested, trying to shove away the package Theo was trying to simultaneously push into his arms. 

“These are not gifts,” Theo corrected him, shaking his head of artfully shaggy brown hair, his smile wide. 

“These, my friends, are stockings.”

Ginny made a face and held up her package. 

“Theo, these are odd-looking stockings…”

Blaise snorted his agreement, appearing more than over Theo’s antics but entertained nonetheless.

“We were supposed to bring gifts?” Hermione muttered, suddenly feeling like her treacle tart was not going to cut it. 

“No, Hermione, don’t sweat it. He did this last year too,” Harry interjected, coming to stand beside Hermione and graciously accepting the package Theo held out towards him. 

“He’s done this every year.” Exasperated, Draco finally took his package with a huff. 

Theo completed the circle around the group, coming last to stand in front of Luna. 

“And for you, Luna dear, the finest pudding Honeydukes has to offer.” Theo presented Luna’s gift with a little flourish, pressing a chaste kiss to her cheek in the process. Luna thanked Theo profusely while Draco muttered under his breath about spoiling dinner. 

“Blaise, open yours!” Theo urged, turning towards him. Blaise was holding out his package as if it could burn him.

“Theo, if this is another box of Ton-Tongue Toffees, I swear…” Blaise sent warning glares towards Theo.

“No no, I promise, it’s absolutely not,” Theo declared as the group watched Blaise jerk open the shoddy wrapping job, pulling out what looked to be a very lumpy, dark green knit sweater with a large silver “B” on the front.

“Blimey,” Ron gasped, “is that one of mum’s sweaters?”

Ginny burst out in a peal of laugher as Blaise held the sweater out in front of him. Theo joined Ginny, wiping away a tear from the corner of his eye as he held his hand to his chest.

“I coordinated with Mrs. Weasley herself. She was very happy to contribute to this year’s annual stocking stuffers,” Theo explained as Blaise looked decidedly put out and Ron looked between them in amusement. 

Sighing, Blaise popped the sweater over his head and covered his own tasteful sweater with the cumbersome knit. 

“You’re a good sport, Blaise,” Harry grinned as Draco blanched at the sight of his friend decked out in his own Weasley Christmas garb. 

“One of us!” Ginny shouted as her and Luna clapped and Blaise dipped into a little bow.

“I think you look fit,” Ron admitted, ducking his head as he smiled and pulling Blaise’s hand into his own. Blaise closed his fingers around Ron’s and pressed a quick kiss against his mouth, enjoying the flush that spread and deepened across Ron’s neck. 

“Well, as long as my dignity is gone, I’ll take the compliment,” Blaise grinned.

“Alright, what did the rest of you get?” Harry asked, pointing towards Hermione who was still holding her package tightly in her arms. Taking that as her queue, she carefully unwrapped her package and pulled out a book. 

“Harry said you like books,” Theo noted proudly, watching her as she read the title.

Hermione exhaled a deep sigh, turning the cover towards him. Her dark brown eyes flashed as she pointed to the title. 

“_Witch Weekly’s Book of Advice for the Working Witch: Finding Time to Date,_” she read aloud, pleased at the collective groan that came from half the room, feeling her own cheeks flush this time.

“What?!” Theo defended, “Harry said you like books, Draco said you made no time for yourself, this seemed like a happy medium.”

What little colour there was to begin with drained from Draco’s face as Hermione turned her sharp gaze on him. 

“I said nothing of the sort,” Draco sniffed, not enjoying being pinned under Hermione’s glare. 

Harry leaned in and patted Draco softly on the back in a soothing manner, clicking his tongue at him.

“I think you did, love, but it was meant in good faith,” Harry confirmed. 

Hermione sighed and held up the book as a truce.

“Well, thanks anyway Theo, Happy Christmas.” 

The rest of the group opened their gifts in succession, Ginny exclaiming her thanks for the limited edition set of _Seeker Weekly_ Theo had managed to find for her. Luna was evidently still pleased with her pudding, Ron received a box of sweets, and Harry and Draco both received Christmas ornaments for their new tree with Theo’s face pictured in the middle, smiling and waving on repeat. 

The front door opened and closed from the other side of the flat with a soft click, and Hermione turned at the sound.

Pansy Parkinson stood in the doorway, gently kicking off her leather boots and shrugging off her jacket. As she shouted her hello at the group and made her way to the kitchen, Hermione tried to keep her face neutral as she stared, not having seen Pansy since their days at Hogwarts. Pansy looked—Hermione swallowed hard—she looked different. Hermione stared at the soft curl of Pansy’s eyelashes against the dip of her cheek and her high cheekbones, the deep red of her lipstick, the flash of dark hair that curved under her chin. 

“Started without me?” Pansy waved at the group after pecking both Draco and Harry on the cheek. She turned to Hermione and offered her hand casually.

“Hermione, nice to see you, it’s been a while,” Pansy hummed, her smile seemingly genuine.

Hermione gave Pansy’s hand a quick shake and enjoyed the warmth she felt from it, and the quick coil she felt twist in her stomach. 

“Nice to see you, too,” Hermione murmured as Pansy walked towards Theo and rustled his hair with her nails. 

“Alright, T, what’ll it be this year? The usual?” Pansy held her hand flat out towards Theo who pulled a chunk of black rock from his pocket with a false air of dignity.

“Pans, as you’re late to our gathering another year, you receive your yearly quota of coal.” 

Ceremoniously, he plunked the rock into her hands as Pansy held it up in thanks. Pansy turned and caught Hermione’s eyes, sending her a quick wink. Hermione smiled tentatively in return, unconsciously winding one of her own thick black curls around her finger. She felt heat at the tops of her cheeks. Merlin, was she turning into Ron?


	2. Chapter 2

“Alright, alright,” Draco clapped his hands together, eager to move on. 

“Now that Pansy has been sufficiently scolded for her lateness—yes, thank you, Theo, well done—I think it’s time to eat.” 

Draco shepherded the group into the dining room on the other side of the kitchen. Hermione’s eyes widened at the number of dishes arranged on the long table, kept warm under individual charms. Little candles hung suspended in mid-air above the table, casting a soft glow around the room.

“You both have really outdone yourselves.” Ginny patted Harry on the back and admired the heaping plates filling the table, while Luna admired small figurines in the corner of the room that looked suspiciously like dressed-up garden gnomes charmed to sing carols. 

Harry smiled but nodded towards Draco, who was instructing everyone where they should sit.

“Draco did most of the cooking actually, I just helped, did a few errands.” Harry looked sheepishly at Draco who seated himself at the head of the table. 

“To the chef and his helper!” Theo lifted his glass of Butterbeer in the air, offering his cheers to the pair of them. 

The rest of the group seated themselves around the table, and Hermione sat near the end of the table beside Theo. Draco’s face momentarily blanched as he waved at Hermione to stop. 

“Hermione, wait, switch with Theo, I don’t want any childish antics between him and Pansy during dinner.”

Hermione glanced at Theo who merely shrugged and stood to switch seats. Hermione obliged and found herself placed on one side of Pansy, Theo on the other. Sighing, Pansy shook her head at Draco.

“Always the director, Draco.”

Draco turned up his chin at her, while Harry interjected.

“Well, there was the cranberry sauce incident last year…” he pointed out, nodding at both Pansy and Theo.

“Which we all agreed started due to a misunderstanding,” Theo cut in, making pleading eyes with those around the table in a bid for their support. Luna nodded seriously while Ginny rolled her eyes, Blaise refusing to participate. 

Hermione withered, feeling guilty that her friends had already established new traditions without her. Though it had only been a little over a year (or a year and a half, sure), there already were so many moments she felt like she had missed out on. 

Pansy leaned closer to Hermione, jolting her out of her momentary melancholy. The side of Pansy’s mouth lifted into a smile as she whispered,

“It was absolutely Theo’s fault; I’ll tell you about it later.” 

Hermione allowed herself a small laugh and accepted the plate of potatoes Luna passed across the table to her. Pansy had—how could she put it?—changed since Hermione saw her years ago. 

This was certainly a different Pansy than she remembered. The haughtiness was still there, but her edges had softened a little. Her smile had a gentleness to it that Hermione was positive was not there during their school years. She could feel herself staring but couldn’t pull her gaze away.

“Hermione—” Draco cut in, smiling earnestly at her.

“Did you know Pansy has done some work with the International Federation of Wizards?” 

Draco glanced at Pansy and gestured between the two of them. Hermione caught Harry’s slight eye-roll as he tucked into his meal and felt a trickle of nervousness down her spine. Was Draco…?

“Yes, well, in a manner,” Pansy corrected him, shooting Hermione an apologetic look.

“The company I work for has done some consulting for the Confederation before, that’s all.” 

“Oh, I’d love to hear more about it,” Hermione managed, pointedly ignoring Draco’s triumphant look. 

The rest of dinner passed rather uneventfully, minus a few jabs thrown between Theo and Draco. Hermione was actually enjoying Pansy’s conversation, as she loosened up and found herself engrossed. The never-ending stream of Butterbeers Ginny supplied her helped as well. By the time dessert rolled around, Hermione realized her sides hurt from laughing, wedged between Theo and Pansy as the two of them bickered, and Luna, ever the mediator, tried to intervene. 

Hermione stood to refill her glass in the kitchen, swaying a little as she walked. She leaned against the counter and smiled to herself, a little giddy from the Butterbeer, but relishing in the feeling of being amongst friends again. 

As she manoeuvred her way around the counter with her now-full glass on her way back out, she bumped firmly into Pansy walking into the kitchen.

“Merlin, sorry,” Hermione gasped, making sure none of her drink had ended up on Pansy, half of it already covering Hermione’s hand. Pansy reached out to steady her, her hand gently closing around Hermione’s upper arm. 

“Sorry, really, a bit clumsy tonight.” Muttering as she surveyed the amount of her drink that had spilled over her own hand, Hermione stuck the side of her finger in her mouth and quickly sucked at the streak of foam that covered her skin. She caught Pansy’s gaze following her movements, eyes flashing. The two of them locked gazes for a moment, as Hermione stared up at Pansy and found herself momentarily disoriented. Hermione’s eyes slowly followed the line of Pansy’s cheek to her lips, noting their soft curve, down the length of her neck, the hollow of her throat, to the edge of her collarbone visible under her sweater. The dark green fabric matched perfectly with the flecks in her eyes.

Pansy cleared her throat and Hermione abruptly stepped back, catching a flicker of amusement cross Pansy’s features. Her head tilted to the side as she regarded Hermione with a look partly of confusion, partly something else, something Hermione couldn’t quite put her finger on. 

“Hey ‘Mione, can you bring more Ogden’s back with you?” Ron popped his head around the corner as he spoke, his words slightly slurred. Blaise quickly appeared behind him and tried to direct him back to the table, shushing Ron as he tried to protest.

“Ronald, not the time.” Blaise placed a hand on Ron’s back and firmly moved him away from the two of them, a very muddled Ron allowing himself to be led. 

Though the Butterbeer made her head a little slower than usual, Hermione had an inkling of what was going on. She glanced around the corner to confirm her suspicions. 

Sure enough, Draco had his neck craned to try and see what was taking place in the kitchen, while Harry looked mortified behind him. Thankfully, Ron seemed mostly oblivious to what was going on and Ginny refused to meet her gaze, though Luna smiled at her when their eyes met. 

With a small groan, Hermione turned back to Pansy, who looked decidedly casual. 

“I think this is supposed to be a set up," she laughed incredulously, all the while silently kicking herself for letting her liquid bravery speak up.

“What was the giveaway? The horrendous book Theo gave you, Draco’s ridiculous antics, or Blaise practically dragging Ron from the kitchen?” Pansy surmised, her arms crossing easily in front of her. 

“Slytherins, the lot of them.” Sighing, Hermione tipped her drink into her mouth, not wanting to continue staring at Pansy. Damn the lot of them. At least Harry had the decency to looked embarrassed. Hermione stole another look at Pansy, who merely shrugged.

And damn Pansy too! Hermione huffed to herself, irritated that Pansy seemed to let everything flow off her with such ease. She was so…so…bloody _calm._

Hermione noticed that Pansy opened her mouth to speak but Hermione quickly cut her off. 

“Better bring Ron that Odgen’s.” She snatched a bottle off the counter beside her and propelled herself back into the dining room, pointedly not looking back at Pansy. 

Everyone at the table did their best to look nonchalant as Hermione dropped the glass bottle in front of Ron and signalled to Ginny, who was suddenly quite interested in the treacle tart on her plate. 

“Gin,” Hermione smiled at her, tight-lipped, “Will you chat with me for a sec? I wanted to ask you about gifts for your parents.”

Ginny gave Hermione a decidedly dubious look but stood to follow her to the bathroom, followed closely by Luna.

Hermione turned when she opened the bathroom door and stopped herself from rolling her eyes at a trailing Luna.

“Oh—Luna, great, didn’t know you were joining us,” Hermione sighed.

“I’m excellent at gift giving, you know,” Luna smiled and Ginny grinned back at her.

“It’s true, ‘Mione, she really is.” 

“Yeah,” Hermione found herself talking increasingly fast, “that’s really brilliant, Luna. Gin, question for you,” she clicked the lock of the bathroom behind her, “is Draco trying to set me up with Pansy, or am I going absolutely mad?”

“Erm,” Ginny paused and exchanged a quick glance with Luna.

“I don’t know if I’d call it a set up…. more like Draco trying to slightly orchestrate a sense of friendliness between the two of you and gently push you in each other’s direction.”  


“What in Merlin’s name would possess him to do that?” Hermione stared at Ginny incredulously, her voice coming out strained in a half-whisper.

“It was all of our idea actually,” Luna piped in, sounding both serene and vaguely proud. 

“Love, really?” Ginny hissed, pinching the bridge of her nose with finger.

“Oh?” Hermione turned to Ginny, her stare full of ice. She could feel prickles of indignation building under her skin, annoyed at being kept in the dark.

“Hermione, listen, I’m going to tell it to you straight because I care about you and you’re one of my best mates.” Ginny dropped her hand and folded her arms in front of her chest. 

“You’ve been gone for over a year and a half, and from the sound of your letters you’re fairly socially isolated when you’re working. Which it also seems like, from what Harry has said, you’re always working.” 

“My work is incredibly important to me—” Hermione tried to interject.

“Yes, ‘Mione, I know. And I love that you’re passionate about what you do, and we’re all so proud of what you’re accomplishing and it’s part of who you are, but we want you to feel connected as well, thought it might be nice for you to find someone you wanted to spend time with.” 

“Who’s ‘we’?” Hermione managed to ask, feeling her earlier outrage slowly fizzle from her like a deflated balloon.

“It’s just an idea that Draco, Blaise, Harry and I thought of one night a few weeks ago. Draco really ran with it, but I think it’s because he saw an opportunity to potentially make two of his friends really happy and thought the two of you would hit it off. Pansy has really changed in the past eight years, you know. And of course, Luna is in on everything, Theo caught wind of it by accident, hence the book, and no one told Ron because he’s rotten at being subtle.”

“He really is quite bad at it,” Luna added.

“Did Pansy know?” Hermione questioned.

“I don’t think so, Draco said he didn’t want it to be weird, but I think he managed that regardless.”

Hermione inhaled deeply and tried to settle her nerves.

“Now what? How do I go back out there and try to act normal? What if Pansy is just as mad about all of this as I was?”

“Well,” Luna answered, “from the eyes you’ve been making at each other all night, I think she’s quite alright with it.”

Ginny laughed and squeezed Luna’s hand.

“I’ll grab you another Butterbeer, ‘Mione.”


	3. Chapter 3

Hermione steeled herself before she moved back into the dining room, Luna and Ginny having left her alone moments before after giving her a few quick words of encouragement. 

She wandered back in the room and tried to look as casual as possible, glad that most of the group had continued on without her. 

“Mione! You have got to—” Ron bit off another chunk of his tart before continuing, “—try these tarts Draco made!” He held up the remnants of the plate from across the room.

“Yes,” Blaise sighed, picking one off the plate quickly, “before Ronald devours them all, which is likely soon.” 

Draco’s eyes had a shine to them as he watched the pair, clearly pleased his baking was getting the attention he believed it deserved. He had moved to one of the large sofas near the table, wedged between Harry on one side and Pansy on the other. Harry had his arm slung around Draco’s shoulders, drawing him close to his chest and resting his chin against Draco’s shoulder. 

Hermione pulled together all the nerve she had left and sat in the empty space on the couch beside Pansy. Pansy turned towards her and smiled easily.

“Did I miss anything?” Hermione asked, keeping her voice light.

“Well,” Theo cut in from across the room, “Harry almost nodded off on Draco’s shoulder and it’s not even midnight, Draco briefly tried to convince us he had zero help from a house elf with tonight’s dinner prep, and Blaise has said, ‘I swear to Merlin, Ronald’ at least five times in the past twenty minutes. Well deserved, I might add.” 

“Oi,” Harry piped up, “cut the cheek, Theo. Draco didn’t have any help.” He finished the sentence with a yawn, patting Draco’s shoulder with his hand. 

Draco flicked an imaginary speck of dust from his sweater, looking unbothered.

“Thank you, love, for your defence, but I hardly need it in the face of such ungrateful behaviour.” 

“Always grateful!” Theo contended, before adding quietly under his breath, “Just always a little suspicious.” 

Pansy turned to Hermione and rolled her eyes.

“As you can see, you missed nothing out of the ordinary.” 

Hermione laughed at their antics and relaxed into the sofa, glad Pansy seemed to have forgiven her for her odd behaviour. Taking her chance, she moved a little closer in her direction, her leg pressing against Pansy’s, her arm brushing hers. As embarrassed as Hermione had been, Ginny hadn’t been wrong about her schedule and her lack of either a social circle or dating life while she was working. If she was honest with herself, it had been almost two years since she had been on a proper date, longer since she had felt a real connection with anyone. If Pansy was at least mildly interested, Hermione realized she genuinely wanted to see where it went, if anywhere. 

And she did seem interested, Hermione gathered. As Hermione waded into the bantering going on between the group, Pansy occasionally leaned towards her and lightly squeezed the top of her leg when she laughed, sending sparks along Hermione’s thigh. And when Hermione leaned over her to say something to Draco or Harry, Pansy didn’t move, and Hermione relished in the feel of pressing against her. 

Her hair, Hermione realized, smelt deliciously like soft florals with hints of rosewater. She loved the way it fell back against her neck when she laughed, framing her face. She also loved that it didn’t appear too odd to stare given her position, and she stole looks at Pansy as often as she could. 

When Pansy finally stood up and moved into the kitchen, asking the group if they wanted anything, Hermione took the opportunity. She leapt to her feet and followed after her, pointedly ignoring Ginny’s muffled laughter.

Pansy had her back to her when Hermione entered. Hermione cleared her throat and came to stand behind her. Pansy turned and put down the glass in her hand.

“Granger, hi,” she smiled. 

Hermione smiled nervously in response, knowing Pansy was waiting for her to say something. 

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry about earlier, this is just…new to me,” she managed, her eyes darting from the ceiling to Pansy’s face. She was immediately unsure if she had said the right thing. What if Pansy thought this wasn’t anything at all? What if she was reading into the situation? 

“That’s alright, Granger, you don’t have to be brilliant at everything,” Pansy added, taking a step to close the space between them.

Hermione’s cheeks flushed red, but she relaxed when she caught the grin Pansy was wearing and the arch in her eyebrow. 

“Fair point,” she paused for a breath, “also, I like when you call me Hermione.” 

“Hermione it is, then.”

“Can we try this over? I’d… like to get to know you, I think. If you do too," Hermione breathed.

Pansy nodded, watching Hermione closely.

“I’d like that.” 

Hermione heard a rustle above them and quickly looked up, watching with growing realization what was happening. Pansy joined her in staring as green leaves descended slowly from the ceiling, hanging directly above them and tied with a white bow.

“Mistletoe,” Hermione murmured, unsure if she would either thank or kill whoever had done this.

“Cheeky of them, isn’t it,” Pansy laughed. 

“Christmas tradition though,” Hermione responded, pleased when Pansy laughed quietly. They stood for a moment like that, letting the silence between them hang. Finally, Pansy gently leaned in towards Hermione, reaching one of her hands to curl around her waist, pulling her in. The other lightly gripped the side of Hermione’s face, her thumb resting against the pulse of her neck.

Hermione’s breath caught in her throat as she responded by weaving her own hand around Pansy, the other reaching to cup the back of Pansy’s neck. Her fingers spread into her hair as Pansy leaned down and caught Hermione’s mouth easily. Her lips were soft, and Hermione melted in response. Little pricks of warmth spread through Hermione’s chest as she kissed Pansy back in earnest, tentative but feeling hazy all at once. Pansy’s tongue slid across her bottom lip before pulling it into her mouth, biting it gently. Hermione’s small gasp was muffled between their mouths. 

Finally, they broke apart for a breath, leaning their foreheads together, hands still entwined. 

“Happy Christmas, Hermione,” Pansy breathed, smiling before she pulled her in for another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this short little holiday fic, it was so much fun to write!


End file.
